The Effects of Fear on Flying Ability (And How to Reduce Fear)

Fear has a profound impact on a pilot's flying ability by impairing concentration, judgment, and decision-making, which can severely compromise flight safety. While a small amount of anxiety can increase alertness, excessive fear can lead to a state of panic, causing a pilot to lose control of their thought processes and the aircraft. Aviation psychology recognizes that a pilot's mental state is as crucial as their technical skills.

Effects of Fear on Pilot Performance:

When fear becomes excessive, it triggers the body's fight-or-flight response, leading to a cascade of physical and psychological effects that hinder a pilot's ability to fly safely. These effects include: 

• Impaired decision-making: Panic or high stress can lead to "tunnel vision," causing a pilot to focus on only one aspect of a problem and ignore other important factors. This can result in rash or uninformed decisions during an emergency.

• Cognitive degradation: Extreme fear can cloud a pilot's thinking, making it difficult to process information, remember procedures, and stay focused on critical tasks. This can lead to a general degradation in performance.

• Physiological symptoms: The release of stress hormones like adrenaline can cause physical symptoms such as a rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, trembling, and sweating. These can interfere with the fine motor control and physical precision needed to operate an aircraft, i.e., overcontrolling becomes a problem.

• Lack of confidence: Fear can cause a pilot to doubt their abilities, leading to a "resignation attitude" where they give up when faced with a challenge instead of actively seeking a solution. Conversely, overconfidence can also result from a failure to properly respect fear, leading to dangerous risk-taking behavior.

• Task overload: A pilot experiencing fear may become overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks required, especially during an emergency. This can compromise their ability to prioritize and manage multiple duties. 

Fear triggers a stress response. Excessive mental stress leads to many of the above effects, and more, including: Reduction of situational awareness in general, Narrowing of visual field and fixation, Reduction in effectiveness of information processing, Poor judgment, Inhibited working memory and memory recall, Increase in reaction time, Negative impact on accuracy and motor function, and more.

Managing Fear and Psychological Well-being in Pilots:

Because of the risks involved, aviation training and culture emphasize techniques for managing fear and maintaining psychological fitness.

Flight Training and Air Experience

Recurrent training, especially in simulators that expose pilots to emergency scenarios, is crucial for building confidence and developing the proper response to fear-inducing situations. Recurrent training must stretch the pilot’s abilities and create growth. Going on a basic cross-country flight for a $100 hamburger and calling it training does not count. Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT) is an enormous confidence builder and fear reducer. All pilots show substantial amounts of growth as a pilot after completing UPRT.

Recognizing Personal Limits

Pilots are trained to be aware of their own stress and fatigue levels, and to recognize when they are not in the right mental or physical condition to fly. A pilot is expected to ground themselves if a personal issue is impacting their ability to fly safely. To mitigate fear and stress, strategies include a strong support network, consistent sleep hygiene, and managing personal factors.

Addressing Stigma and Fear

Despite the importance of mental health, many pilots are hesitant to report struggles due to the fear of career repercussions, and the aviation industry is actively working to address this stigma. The industry promotes seeking help for mental health challenges. Programs like peer counseling and working with aviation psychologists can help pilots manage conditions like anxiety and depression.

Flying is an activity that is 95% mental activity.

Pilots must control their fear/emotional stress. As a long-time instructor, I have seen MANY fearful flyers. It appears to be a more common problem now than in the past. I do not know why, but it needs to be addressed. All pilots should assess any flying-related fears and address them. How can get complicated, but one of the best ways is with good instruction from competent instructors who will address any fears or apprehensions. 

Lately, we see pilots who are afraid of steep turns, stalls, crosswinds, any maneuvering beyond the gentlest input, and so on. The best cure I know of is to expand your capabilities. Acquire better knowledge of how airplanes work, and learn to fly outside of one’s comfort zone so that normal flying does not unnecessarily increase stress levels and the pilot is more capable of handling unusual situations. A high level of competency in dealing with emergencies is also crucial. If you fly long enough, you are likely to have system failures and possibly significant emergencies. I have personally met many pilots who have had engine failures, and I have had one as well, where I had to make a “dead stick” landing. This is in addition to many other significant system failures that I have experienced over a career of flying. 

To summarize, fear and stress are not compatible with good flying. Seek a high standard of performance when flying, continue to improve skills and knowledge through study and training, plan for the worst, always be prepared, find methods to greatly reduce or eliminate flying-related fears, and stay calm!

By Mike “Cuckoo” Kloch

Partially written with assistance from AI